Coutinho, Lukaku and Real Madrid

So was going to go and post a better general thoughts thing, but then I watched Liverpool West Brom and decided to save that one til tomorrow, don’t want to overstimulate, well nobody, but still.

Was also thinking about live blogging the match, but then left the flat in a shocking and unusual turn of events. Maybe tomorrow for the PSG game.

Caught the last 20 minutes of the Liverpool game, and continue to be amazed at how poor they are at killing off a football match. This has nothing to do with my being a United fan. I did celebrate West Brom’s goals, maybe because I enjoy seeing Liverpool losing or maybe because West Brom are one of those teams I like to see do well.

Other ‘second team’ type sides for me are Everton, Swansea and even Arsenal, now they’re no longer a threat to our title. As long as they don’t beat us I enjoy watching them play, even had the pleasure of going to watch Swansea play Sunderland a week ago.

So Liverpool. Didn’t deserve the penalty that Foster brilliantly saved, but appeared to deserve the win until Romelu Lukaku showed up and bullied everyone and everything around Anfield before scoring West Brom’s second. He turned Carragher and Agger so easily so many times in the space of about ten minutes it was untrue.

Other Albion players that I see as top players are Chris Brunt, Youssouf Mulumbu and James Morrison. Main reason I like other clubs is that I like their players i.e. Fellaini, Michu and Vermaelen, to name three from those other teams I mentioned.

And while Lukaku was tearing up one end of the pitch like AW or Kobe Bryant (hilarious obscure wrestling reference, you’re welcome), Philippe Coutinho came on and looks like a nice kind of playmaker that Liverpool have been lacking behind the forwards. Where he will play in Liverpool’s formation will be interesting, but he looks a better buy than Borini.

He did very well for my Ultimate Team, just putting that out there.

And then, finally, the reason I’m missing two workshops and a (useless) lecture on Thursday to go home. Manchester United vs Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.

An advert for the game came on before I went out and I just got so excited. The last time we met Madrid we went out 6-5 in two of the best ties I’ve seen in the Champions League. That 4-3 win at Old Trafford is my earliest CL memory besides the ’99 semi and final.

Of course in that game, a Madrid striker by the name of Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to see Real through. Hoping it doesn’t happen on Wednesday, especially with him coming up against the suspect defending of Evra and Rafael. Vidic and Rio need to start, and need to perform.

Then there’s David De Gea. I will defend him to the hilt against accusations he isn’t fit to play for United, but as Alex knows I wasn’t too keen on his form this season. Thankfully he seems to have picked up recently, getting an in-form FIFA card, which always means a player was brilliant, and going so far as to actually dealing with crosses against Everton.

So let’s see how he does against Ronnie and co. Bringing a score draw back to Old Trafford would be fantastic as far as I’m concerned, and we are more than capable of out-gunning them at home.